The Biomimicry Center

Friday we were at the Gila River Indian Community Earth Day celebration, we celebrated biomimicry, exploring how nature inspires design. For instance, did you know that the bullet train was redesigned after the kingfisher bird's beak? Nature's designs are full of inspiration! We also discussed degrees in CGF and the USDA NextGen grant, helping diverse professionals prepare for careers in food and agriculture, especially at USDA. Let's continue exploring how nature can shape our innovations.

Biomimicry center co-director Sara El-Sayed and professor of Indigenous sustainability Melissa Nelson at the end of yesterday's launch event. Knowledge Symbiosis: Can Biomimicry and Indigenous Science Harmonize? Here is the link to the first episode. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nativeseedpod.org/podcast/2023/ep-23-baumeister-nelson-pt1__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!eEJuqvZBjGVX5O9cOI3JRWzF1C2iqnMa698UsYtHVNsiF0GQvBdRE7HsWroOlMVl0_yk5V3By5aCuavd$

Join Michelle fehler for a great session exploring the functions of living organisms. An event organized by ASU's biomimicry club

First meeting of the semester by the students at the biomimicry club with great attendance. Lots of enthusiastic students about biomimicry

Students in BMY 302, and their final projects. Redesigning our plant wall by plant solutions using life principles as inspiration.

TBC is hiring a post-doctoral research scholar, to map out and expand the biomimetic lab-to-market system at Arizona State University. If you are interested or know of someone who is eligible and interested, please forward this application.

Apply - Interfolio

The center co-director Sara elsayed, in collaboration with Dr. Melissa Nelson and Lily Urmann have been selected for a seed grant. Through this grant we will be developing a series of podcasts at the intersection of Indigenous knowledges and biomimicry.

The IHR is pleased to announce our fall 2022 seed grant recipients.
Visit our seed grants page to learn more about the recipients, their projects and how to apply: https://ihr.asu.edu/grants-awards/seed-grants. Congratulations to all!

ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences ASU Department of English

For those of you who missed the conversation with author/tv presenter and podcast host, Patrick Aryee on Biomimicry, here is the webinar moderated by the center's Sara El-Sayed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKxOJtKr2Do

An Inside Look: Animals That Inspire Human Ingenuity Biomimicry is the process of designing new technologies that are inspired by the animals of planet Earth. The natural world is full of problem solvers with s...

Biomimicry: Innovating from Nature | Scottsdale Public Art Nature is the mother of invention—literally! No one knows this better than the architects, designers, engineers and CEOs engaged in the emerging discipline of biomimicry.

Designed to Move Opening Reception | Scottsdale Public Art Join Adelheid Fischer, curator of Designed to Move: Seeds That Float, Fly or Hitchhike through the Desert Southwest, at an opening reception for the exhibition directly before her talk at 5:30 p.m. July 7 in the Scottsdale Civic Center Library Auditorium.

Nature@Noon - Cholla Cactus: The Champions of Torque - September 15th, noon-1:00pm

To register for this event, please follow this link: https://na.eventscloud.com/ereg/newreg.php?eventid=633175&

A close up of some BioConnect kit hands-on education elements… including 3D models of the Namib beetle and jackrabbit ears, as well as ethically sourced rattlesnake skin and faux coyote fur.

Have you seen the FREE online biomimicry curriculum we created for middle school students & educators? There are a ton of great resources for any age to foster sustainable innovation inspired by nature.

Check it out here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/w9ldaz5evpe9ay2/AAAwxrxXJvjQfXuRWbMGooCZa?dl=0

What can we learn from the desert tortoise or elephant about managing heat? These are just two champion organisms that we explore in Project BioConnect: a toolkit that introduces biomimicry to middle school students -- available now to all educators!

This collaborative effort with The Phoenix Zoo and The Biomimicry Institute includes a comprehensive and engaging week-long curriculum for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, all aligned to both AZ and NGSS standards. As part of this grant project funded by ASU Women and Philanthropy, we will be shipping 20 complete kits to arizona schools free of charge; but we also made all the kit materials available online for educators everywhere. The materials online include all 3d model files, lesson plans, rubrics, biomimicry case studies, and Phoenix Zoo videos featuring some well-adapted desert animals. They are all ready for your classroom!

Check out a full description of BioConnect in the ASU News article published today and learn about how you can access these resources: https://news.asu.edu/20210720-arizona-impact-asu-biomimicry-center-creates-lessons-kids-about-natures-innovations

ASU Biomimicry Center creates lessons for kids about nature's innovations An ASU center is now offering a way for teachers to introduce the concept of biomimicry to middle schoolers. The Biomimicry Center has created BioConnect educational kits to be used in the classroom and has put all the resources from the kit online for any educator to use.

How the ‘Wandering Meatloaf’ Got Its Rock-Hard Teeth: The dentition of the gumboot chiton, a lumbering mollusk, contains a rare mineral never before seen in a living animal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/31/science/mollusk-wandering-meatloaf-santabarbaraite.html?referringSource=articleShare

How the ‘Wandering Meatloaf’ Got Its Rock-Hard Teeth The dentition of the gumboot chiton, a lumbering mollusk, contains a rare mineral never before seen in a living animal.

We are very proud to announce that NatureMaker (our newest program in collaboration with ASU Library) has won the 2021 ASU President’s Award for Innovation!!

The President's Award for Innovation provides formal recognition to ASU faculty and staff who have worked as teams that have made significant contributions to ASU and higher education through the creation, development, and implementation of innovative projects, programs, initiatives, services and techniques.

Learn more about our NatureMaker space at https://biomimicry.asu.edu/naturemaker/

Starting the week out strong with some up close and personal insect portraits to inspire you!

Have you seen the beautiful collection of insect photography from the on ?
We definitely recommend checking it out!

If you missed the last Nature@Noon of the semester with our Director Dayna Baumeister, you can now watch the recording on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds6BckahmKs

Nature@Noon -- From Surprise to Inspiration: Using Biomimicry to Explore Unfamiliar New Worlds Whether traveling on vacation, visiting friends or relocating across the country, many of us have experienced the pleasures of exploring exciting new habitat...

What can forest ecosystems teach us about cooperation and communication?

In the newest Zygote Quarterly(a biomimicry online publication), our own Assistant Director Heidi Fischer writes about Suzanne Simard’s forest research and insights in “The Science of Seeing: I Am Because We Are”.

“Ubuntu— [is] an African word generally translated as ‘I am because we are’... Ubuntu in human society resonates with Ubuntu in forest society: that individual thrival, not merely survival, depends upon engaging in interactions that maintain the integrity, diversity and stability of the whole” (Fischer). Read the full piece here: https://zqjournal.org/editions/zq29.html

For more, check out Suzanne Simard’s new book, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.

Congratulations to all of our biomimicry grads, who are completing either their MS or certificate program in the next few weeks!

One of our students graduating this semester, Louwie Gan, was recently featured in the ASU "Notable Spring 2021 Graduates". In his interview, Louwie describes his biomimicry journey and what's next for him in this space. Louwie discusses the importance of equity and sustainability in the built environment, and how he is working to bring biomimicry to his home country, the Philippines. Read the full article here: https://news.asu.edu/20210422-complex-adaptive-systems-grad-plans-bring-biomimicry-his-home-country

The images above are designed and drawn by Louwie and highlight the possibilities of biomimicry in urban design, cities functioning like a forest, and mitigating urban heat islands using biomimicry principles.

If you’re interested in applying to a biomimicry graduate program, click on the link in our bio or check out our website: biomimicry.asu.edu 🌱

The natural world is both beautiful and brilliant...

Calling all citizen scientists! This year we are excited to partner with and promote the City Nature Challenge 2021 in Phoenix, taking place April 30 through May 3. This is a global effort to observe and document as much urban biodiversity as possible while engaging in community science (Not in Phoenix? Check out citynaturechallenge.org to find an event near you). Using iNaturalist, anyone can get involved and share observations, anywhere from neighborhoods to local parks. Over 300 cities around the globe participate, and every year there are more! This is the first year the Greater Phoenix Area will be part of the international challenge and it is co-organized by the Metro Phoenix EcoFlora, City of Chandler-Community Services, and Educating Children Outdoors. This is an important event for our state and will highlight the amazing biodiversity we have in the Sonoran Desert. Visit the Phoenix City Nature Challenge Website to sign up: https://greaterphoenixcnc.com/

Started in 2016 as a competition between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the City Nature Challenge (CNC) has grown into an international event, motivating people around the world to find and document wildlife in their cities. Run by the Community Science teams at the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the CNC is an annual four-day global bioblitz at the end of April, where cities are in a collaboration-meets-friendly-competition to see not only what can be accomplished when we all work toward a common goal, but also which city can gather the most observations of nature, find the most species, and engage the most people in the event. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 City Nature Challenge will not be focused on competition; instead we want to embrace the healing power of nature and celebrate tens of thousands of people all around the world, searching for and documenting their local biodiversity, together in this event.

We are excited to invite you to Design Impact Vol. 4: Regeneration: Design Strategies for a Resilient Future, to be held on March 31, 2021, 10am EDT, hosted by The Alumni Council of the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The event is free and open to all! Learn more and register here: https://www.gsdimpact.com/

The panel will explore the potential for regenerative practices to shift our cultural, economic, social, and ecological drivers for new whole systems design. Regionally driven and specific to the geological, climactic, historical and cultural traditions of place, regenerative initiatives advocate low-impact, healing and high-quality lifestyles, integrating modern clean and renewable technologies with indigenous wisdom. They emphasize community building, inclusiveness, and foster a relational perspective with ecosystems that is inspired by a reverence for the wisdom inherent in nature.

Sessions address topics of regional as well as global relevance and focus on: • Session 1: Regeneration: A Paradigm Shift (10:15 - 11:30AM EDT) • Session 2: Regenerative Design: Systems, Technologies and Strategies (11:30AM - 12:55PM EDT).

Design Impact is a global design leadership speaker series sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council. These virtual events bring together outstanding rosters of global leaders to share their work and vision, challenging us as a global community to use design as a tool for actionable, transformative change, and healing.

Have you ever visited The Biomimicry Center? If so, what was your favorite part? Leave us a comment!

If you haven’t gotten a chance to see it in person yet, you can view our virtual tour video on The Biomimicry Center YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Ck6HRHYh4

All photos courtesy Leland Gebhardt, who captured this unique space beautifully. 🌿

Getting up close and personal with our dragonfly and damselfly collection for ✨

We hope you all have a wonderful week full of learning from nature!

@ The Biomimicry Center

We are excited to be part of this year's Arizona State University Herberger Day, and will be hosting a virtual workshop titled "Biomimicry: Exploring Nature-Inspired Design" (open to all ASU staff, faculty, and students).

In this virtual workshop, participants will: 1) be introduced to the basics of biomimicry; 2) experience closely observing natural organisms, 3) learn how to apply nature’s strategies in generating their own innovative designs. Participants will be invited to submit their designs to The Biomimicry Center Herberger Day Design Competition. So join us to ask the question: "What would nature do?"

Register and explore other workshops here: https://herbergerinstitute.asu.edu/events/herberger-institute-day/

Herberger Institute Day The Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts is more than a design and arts college. It’s a creative city, populated by more than 6,000 artists, designers, scholars — working, teaching and learning together. Herberger Institute Day launched in 2017 to bring together the students, faculty and ...

If you missed our Nature@Noon last week on dendrites, branching patterns, and fractals, you can now view the recording on our YouTube channel!

https://youtu.be/dzo-xj2vvoU

Thinking Like a Tree: Dendrites and One Man’s Search for Universality in Nature and Engineering The Biomimicry Center presents our second Nature@Noon presentation for the spring semester, recorded on February 24th 2021. Branching patterns are ubiquitous...